Japanese Days of the Week
Learning the Japanese words for things we see and use everyday is a great way to get into learning Japanese.
Early Japanese society revolved around nature, agriculture and religion so naturally many references to these can be found in Japanese words. Many other languages, including English, also contain words from the distant past so we can often find common links that can help us learn and remember Japanese words.
Take for example the Japanese names for days of the week. In Japanese, all of these words relate to things that can be found in nature and were considered important in peoples lives in the distant past. the key words are the Japanese words for sun, moon, fire, water, wood, earth, gold and earth.
- Sunday is the Suns day, just like in English, The Japanese word for sun is nichi.
- Monday, similarly, is the Moons day. The Japanese word for moon is getsu.
- Tuesday is fire day. The Japanese word for fire is ka.
- Wednesday is water day. The Japanese word for water is sui.
- Thursday is wood day. The Japanese word for wood is moku.
- Friday is the golden day. The Japanese word for gold is kin.
- Saturday is earth day. The Japanese word for earth is dou.
In English each days name ends in day. Japanese day names also have the same ending - youbi. Youbi means "day" of the week.
So heres our complete list of Japanese days of the week:
- Sunday - Nichi-youbi
- Monday - Getsu-youbi
- Tuesday - Ka-youbi
- Wednesday - Sui-youbi
- Thursday: Moku-youbi
- Friday - Kin-youbi
- Saturday - Dou-youbi
